Dad stuff

[stgulik]

My dad called from West Virginia just to say hello. Remember, this is the guy who watched most of the Harry Potter movies with us last summer. He might back come out to see us in August. "Unless California is still in a drought," he joked.

"That's right. They won't let you in unless you bring your water with you," I informed him.

That got us on the topic of drought management. He told me he'd heard of a company that skims the sod completely off your yard and replaces it with sand, gravel and drought-tolerant plants. Doesn't that sound great? I've admired other people's yards, but the thought of all those hours, sod-busting, hauling away and planting, makes my old bones ache.

Not sure I could afford someone to do it, though. I know! I'll have Dad get us started. He's 77 and in far better shape than I am.

Just came back to this blog entry, and it occurs to me that, as far as you people are concerned, I don't display the daughterly worry for my out-of-state father as I do for my near-to-me mother. The fact is, I have a lengthy list of silly worries when it comes to my dad--just as lengthy as the worry list I keep on Mom. Different but lengthy. One time, I hadn't heard from him in a long time, and I couldn't get hold of  him for the life of me, and I don't remember what the circumstances were, but I became convinced that his then-wife had actually done something heinous to him. So I called his town and asked the police to do a drive-by on him. Yes, really! I'm not proud.

Anyway, he called me about an hour later. "You had a cop come and check on me?" I apologized profusely. He said, "What were you thinking? I could have been baking meth or something!" And it was all okay. That's my dad.

Comments

[nocturnus33]

Your dad sounds cool.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

Dad sounds like fun people. Our lawn was sodded during the 2007-early 2008 drought, and it never recovered. But we have found that when you mow the weeds they look a lot like grass.

[stgulik.livejournal.com]

YES! That's how our lawns are here in CA. We don't re-seed them with the good Kentucky blue grass that came with the house, so eventually, crab grass takes over. Crab grass very sensibly dies back in summer, but with the first rain, it greens up again quite beautifully.

[stgulik.livejournal.com]

Since all our neighbors (and their neighbors, and so forth) understand the peculiarities of crab grass, if we left it to its devices, nobody would judge us. A compelling case for not spending the money to un-sod the lawn.

[delphipsmith]

"What were you thinking? I could have been baking meth or something!" ROFL Your dad sounds awesome :)